Roles in Business Requirements Analysis Projects

Each task to be undertaken needs qualified personnel. A business requirements project is in this sense not different from others. Important roles are:

• The decision maker;
• The project manager;
• The business analyst or the domain expert (one per important domain);
• The architect;
• The QA (Quality Assurance) lead;
• The workshop facilitator;
• The scribe;
• The designer;
• The tester;
• The application manager.

Remark: As in other projects a role is not a person. A person can have one or more roles, and role can be implemented by one or more persons. To be able to perform a role you must be skilled in business requirements tasks.

The decision maker

The most important role is the decision maker. Being the captain of the ship that sees to safe journey. He is especially active in the planning and control of the project. He also takes care of communication in the company and all political issues.

The project manager

The project manager takes care of all tactical issues. So creates the actual project planning, reports progress, and sees to it that all issues are properly solved.

The domain expert

The domain expert defines what he wants to achieve in detailed words. He knows everything of the subject, or can lay his hands on details if necessary.

The workshop facilitator

The workshop facilitator prepares and leads the workshops. He makes sure that the agenda is strictly followed, and that everybody gets a chance to give input. Per agenda point he gives a conclusion. When the discussion does not converge he puts the point on the open issue list in order to be solved later.

The scribe

The scribe documents all specifications. Preferable he uses a dedicated business requirements tool.

Also he makes sure that specifications are analyzed until they can be defined in SMART business requirements terms.

The analyst

The analyst uses several techniques to define and refine the specifications. He uses techniques like hierarchical decomposition and flow charts to present a visual feedback of the business requirements, also keeping an eye on the relation with meta models. During his business requirements analysis he will use the open issues list to keep track of raised and new issues. This is the only way to solve difficulties in business requirements analysis.

The designer

The designer matches the specifications to the existing situation and makes sure that the result is a practical solution. He works close together with the analyst in solving the open issues.

The tester

The tester validates the work of scribe, analyst and designer. This results in a list of untestable specifications which then should be revised. In this way the quality of the project is very assured.

The application manager

The application manager also inspects the specifications. He makes sure that the project can be implemented in the current information systems. He makes sure that the frozen specifications are conserved and on request ready for inspection.

One of the methods used in system management is ITIL. There are some ITIL processes where the specifications are required: Examples are service management and change management.

Also, you could use Application Services Library (ASL). This provides you as well with a number of cross industry standardized approaches.